Joyful through pain, victorious through suffering.

First Step

There’s nothing like teaching your child learning how to ride a bike. It is one of memorable moments of child hood. Being a father I feel proud of seeing my daughter finally learn how to ride a bike. I thought she’ll never learn it due to her lack of interest. Her bike has been sitting in the storage for a while. With a little push and encouragement she finally did it. The hardest part is the first step, learning to balance. When you master that everything falls into place.

I know it’s not easy riding on two wheels. It scares us. The fear envelops us. We don’t want to get hurt . Who wants to be? But it is necessary to take that first step. You have to pass through it. My daughter struggled to balance as she keep her other foot down to ride. Sometimes she would crash and hurt herself. I felt the pain too. I want to hold her but I know if I do that she’ll never be able to learn. So many times she told me that she couldn’t do it, “Too scary,” she said. She wanted me to hold her bike for her. I replied, “You have to learn to balance it yourself, do not give up, you have to conquer your fears and doubts. You can do it.” But how? You just have to do it over and over again until you get better. Then that day finally came, she done it.

It reminds me when I was learning to drive a manual transmission, the first gear is always the hardest ,same thing with motorcycles. The faster you go, the easier it’ll be, but only if you are willing to take that first step. I never rode a motorcycle before. It freak me out even more when I have to ride through a series of cones both straight and zig zag. I was trying to go slow for fear of falling. In motorcycles, the faster you go, the bike will balance itself. All the people in my class kept yelling, “Go faster, go faster.” I was too afraid and then it dawned on me I better listen to them since they have more experience than I am. Oh boy, I just can’t describe the feeling. The wind hitting your face. The smell getting trap in your nose. All the elements hitting your body. The adrenaline pumping through your blood. It was fun and I used fear as a reason to not to crash and always have a situational awareness.

Like in life, there’s a lot of challenges that we go through. In order to overcome them changes has to be implemented. It could be going to college. Getting out of bad relationships. A change in career. Or God choosing you to serve Him. Day in, night out you tell yourself you’ll do it next time. As seasons pass nothing change. The fact is aside from you having doubt and fear, the most troubling is you don’t want to step out of you comfort zone. You’re use to it and you like to be comfortable. Little did you know that if you only take that first step, things will get better. In the end, a plethora of opportunities awaits you. Then you ask, “What If I fail?” So what, learn from it and be better. Now, go and take the first step or you’re going to end up in regret.